Tragic prose classics

Author: Chen Yinchai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: A good essay is like a rich, mellow wine, leaving one lingering and savoring its aftertaste. This is an anthology of essays selected from a unique perspective, filled with the sorrow of heartbreak, the grief of parting, the pain of losing a friend, and the bitterness of loss. The authors are all masters of the essay: Lu Xun, Xu Zhimo, Liang Shiqiu, Yu Dafu, Eileen Chang, Zhang Chengzhi, and Shu Ting. Their words are profound yet also beautiful, delicate, every sentence expressing various shades of sorrow—deep or faint. It is truly heartfelt and moving. It not only provides readers with emotional nourishment but also offers artistic enjoyment, making it a fine choice for literary enthusiasts and general readers to appreciate and collect.
As the ancients once said, "Words of joy are hard to write well, while words of hardship are easily beautiful" (Han Yu, Preface to the Songs of Jing and Tan). Westerners also believed that "Beauty in music is inseparable from melancholy" (Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry). So, selecting works of sorrow should be effortless, right? However, heart-wrenching cries or tender, sorrowful sobs do not necessarily constitute art. Poets may indeed emerge from pain, but great poetry is often written after the storm has passed. The lingering echo of sorrow, once reason has tempered emotion, is equally rewarding, isn’t it?